


Our Magical Intern

by Emerald_Shadow



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Crossover, Kamar-Taj (Marvel), Post-Civil War (Marvel), Sorcerers, sorcerer!marinette
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:54:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23812642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emerald_Shadow/pseuds/Emerald_Shadow
Summary: When Marinette is finally -finally- able to defeat Hawkmoth and Mayura and reunite all the Miraculous everything changes. Everyone else forgets. Everyone forgets all of the fights, the akumas, the villains, the heroes. There is not a single being outside of Marinette herself who remembers those miserable years, that decade during which she fought for her city, her people.So, feeling like a stranger in her own city, what else was she to do but flee? And Kamar-Taj, home of the sorcerers, home of magic, is the perfect place for an emotionally unstable young woman who wants to protect the world with magic, isn't it?
Relationships: Stephen Strange & Marinette Dupain-Cheng
Comments: 9
Kudos: 260





	Our Magical Intern

Nobody remembered anything. Not a single soul in Paris remembered anything about Hawkmoth, Mayura, their akumas and amoks, their reign of terror. Nobody remembers a single moment that included anything to do with the Miraculi, there wasn’t even any news coverage or loose youtube videos. But she remembered each and every single vivid detail, very akuma and amok, every injury and scar, every single blow landed, every single motivation and name and Lucky Charm. She remembered all of it. But not a single other person does. As soon as the Moth and Peacock Miraculi were back in the box, everything changed. The Black Cat ring appeared back in its place and Marinette felt the urge to replace her earrings, so she did. There was no great ceremony, no announcement, not even the slightest change in anything to tip her off. By the time she realized what had happened, it was too late. There was nothing she could do to change what had to be and had been done. As it was, Marinette suspected the only reason the mass memory wipe didn’t affect her was because she is the Guardian now. 

Accepting that the Wipe happened wasn’t easy but she got there eventually. Unfortunately, the effects of the Wipe made themselves known to her much too quickly. Everywhere she looked she saw demolished buildings, bodies on the ground, flames in the sky, akumas causing havoc, amoks bringing chaos, akuma victims who had tried so hard to be strong. And no one else saw any of it. No one else saw the now imaginary, nonexistent scars and traumas that her beautiful city had suffered. No one else saw the Reign of Terror that was on par with the one during the Revolution right here, centuries ago. No one else could see it, the pain and suffering, the despondency. 

It was too much, watching all of her classmates and friends and family lose all the growth and development they went through, lose all the maturity and achievements and skills they had worked so hard for. However, it was possibly the worst of it all to see and feel her family and friends look at her like  _ that _ , as if they didn’t know her. To be fair, they didn’t know her that well anymore but it hurt to see their confusion, fear and cation in their eyes, see them tiptoeing around her as if she was some sort of alien that they haven’t decided to consider to be friendly or not yet. She had changed over these last nine years but up until now, she hadn’t realized just how much she changed but with the insist of her peers and parents, she learned quickly. It took Alya looking at her as if she grew a second head and asking “Girl, since when are you interested in all that techy stuff? That’s Max’s thing!”, her parents asking her if something had happened to her -something Marinette didn’t even consider the possibility of, given her skill set- and her friends all being awed at her newfound athleticism when she beat Kim in a weight lifting contest. They had all looked at her with such surprise, and cation in their eyes, seemed so cautious and fearful of her that once she noticed, she couldn’t even blink without seeing their faces. It hurt so much, to be looked at by the people she loved as if she was a stranger, a completely unknown, someone to be treated with the utmost care lest she break. She hated that so so much more than anything she had ever hated before.

Those looks of bewilderment, those looks lacking any recognition, were the final nails in the coffin for her. She packed everything she couldn’t stand to leave behind into a duffel bag, emptied her bank accounts and shut down her online store for the time being. She needs distance, both physically and mentally and the best way to achieve that was to leave Paris behind completely. The week before she graduated from university, Marinette purchased a plane ticket to Nepal -she didn’t know why she felt the urge to go to Nepal of all places but it called to her and she had long ago learned to trust her instincts and gut feelings. So, right after she officially graduated, Marinette rushed to the airport and was in the air within the hour. She had already said her goodbyes long ago, almost a year now, back when everyone else had lost all of their memories and growth but she retained hers. She had long ago lost her friends and family. Now it was time they all stopped pretending and they lost her too. Marinette had found what she was looking for almost immediately, the seemingly inconspicuous building calling to her like a siren, luring her in with a song she couldn’t understand or resist and yet had been subconsciously looking for her whole life. 

Kamar-Taj was the breath of fresh air after living in a toxic wasteland for years.

No one knew her Before, no one had any comparison to what Marinette had been like in Paris and what she was like now as a student of the Mystic Arts. No one. She was just another dedicated student whose passions lay within clothing, innovative -and oftentimes strange- problem solving, a thirst for knowledge and an innate need to protect and fight. No one could tell her that she didn’t -shouldn’t- know how to fight because they had seen her beat a Master at hand to hand combat within forty-eight hours of being at the commune and continued to win against anyone who challenged her to a spar. No one looked at her like she had two heads when she tweaked her clothes to be more protective, practical and stylish all at once, in fact, many of her fellow students and even some Master’s asked for her advice and help. No one could and did judge her for holing up in her room or the library for hours or even days on end to read and learn as much as she possibly could -she wasn’t the only one who did it, after all, and the Worst Offender of such behaviors was another student named Stephan Strange. No one would interrupt her silent reprieves atop the walls or roofs of the building that made up Kamar-Taj, leaving her to delve deeper into herself, meditate and work through her emotions, memories and thoughts to balance herself -this was actually a particle much encouraged by many in the commune, several people often leaving her forever-warm tea and bits of food when she hadn’t moved in over five hours. 

Kamar-Taj was exactly what she needed. 

Possibly the most intriguing part of her stay was one Doctor Stephen Strange. She was a bit ahead of him in training, which was to be expected as she had long ago accepted the possibility of magic and all that it entailed, but Strange was having a harder time than she had. To be fair, she had been exposed to it at a much younger age and as such learned to accept that Magic was a thing that existed and could be used but Strange was a doctor and former neurosurgeon, a man of science, so Marinette could understand why the Mystic Arts were bewildering for him. Regardless of their differing skill leave, they got along well enough. 

One of their more memorable interactions -and the first one outside of occasionally exchanging a few words in the library or during training- was when Strange had asked her to teach him how to fight. Marinette had been surprised, to say the least, by the request but she couldn’t deny him such a simple and non-consequential request. Knowing how to fight was imperative to her continual survival, who was she to begrudge someone else of such a useful skill? Honestly she wasn’t surprised that someone had asked her to train them in non-magical combat, since it had been established within her first week at Kamar-Taj that she was the most capable at combat without any magical assistance. Admittedly, that didn’t mean there isn't room for improvement and Marinette learned that she and Strange were much the same in their pursuit of knowledge. To them knowledge was power and they both yearned desperately to be able to learn and utilize any and all things at their disposal.

Marinette taught Strange, advising him on his stance, his force, his strategy and movements. She acknowledged that Strange was a doctor and didn’t want to use his medical knowledge to do permanent or fatal harm to another being and as such asked him to point out where it would be effective to hit an opponent from a medical standpoint and taught him how to take advantage of those targets. She had him tell her the most vulnerable and debilitating body parts to hit without causing any permanent damage and showed him how to hit, strike, take advantage of those chinks in the human armor. She taught him how to look for other little flaws that could be taken advantage of, little things that could end up saving lives. Mostly though, she taught him how to evade, defend, last longer and deliver the most effective blows with minimal effort and damage to himself and his opponent. It took a little while, what with training for both the Mystic Arts and combat, but they managed and within the space of a few months Marinette declared that Strange knew all that he had to and could to defend himself and others if necessary without having to rely on magic. Mordo hadn’t been the most pleased with her, for now his apprentice was better at non-magical combat than he was, but Marinette could only smile sheepishly and feel proud of Strange for achieving so much in so little time. 

They occasionally ran into each other after that, mostly in the library where they spent more time than was probably healthy. During those brief run-ins, they exchanged recommendations for books, training tips and the like. Occasionally, Marinette would ask a question about magical theory. She was better at using magic, conjuring shields, weapons, items, in the practical sense but the theory behind it was what tripped her up. She was used to a very different set of rules and had a hard time reconciling the two worlds, rules, cultures she was presented with and expected to learn. Strange on the other hand thrived on magical theory, taking to it like a fish to water. He was good at the practical application as well, there should be no mistake made about that but he wasn’t used to it. He didn’t always know it would work, didn’t always expect the results described on the page to become an actual reality right in front of his eyes, unlike Marinette, who had no doubt that all that was described on the pages around her could and would happen if she was inclined to make it so. So they helped each other, on those occasions in the library. She would ask for a better explanation of what was described in the books and by their teachers and he would tell her, explain it with better detail, help her understand the cause and effect, the energy and control required to use it. He would give her a spell that he was unable to perform or understand and explain its theory to her and she would perform it, show him that it was possible, walk him through the whole performance and execution. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement that they eventually stopped practicing, as through their continued interactions they learned from their past mistakes and developed the skills they had previously lacked and the other had taught them. Neither of them really had the time to notice, however. Both of them were too ensconced in their studies, too busy learning and improving to notice their terminated interactions. 

Marinette had left Kamar-Taj almost as soon as she was declared a Master of the Mystic Arts. Initially she had tried to stay, to learn more to stay as a teacher, as a Sorceress, as a hard-working member of the commune and while she still loved Kamar-Taj, still loved living and learning there, once her training was complete, she was left with too much time, too much time alone, with barely anything to pass the time with, with no goal to work towards. It drove her mad. She wanted to protect the world from inter-dimensional threats, make no mistake about that but that involved too much idleness for her to be able to do it productively and continually. So she met with the Ancient One and explained her predicament to her. She understood and approved her choice to leave. Marinette had been far more relieved that she understood but after her past experiences, people couldn’t very well blame her. With that in mind, she had made sure that the Masters of the Mystic Arts knew that she could be called upon at any time, should they require her help. The Ancient One had smiled at her in that strange way of her’s, the one that made her look like she was staring into the middle distance and not completely present in this plane of existence -to be fair, she could be doing exactly that, considering who she was. 

With that done and dusted, Marinette dropped off a few gifts in specific rooms than packed up her two duffel bags and headed straight to the airport. Over the last two years of her life -Kwami, it has been three years since she had defeated Hawkmoth- she hadn’t checked her email or phone. In fact, she hadn’t even charged her phone in one year and eight months. Haven't even left the Sanctum's territories in that same amount of time, either, maybe longer even. She couldn’t help but wonder what had changed with the world at large during that time. So she charged her phone at the airport while deciding where to head to. Having not spent basically any of her money in two years left her in a quite good financial position, it seems. By the time she had decided to go to America, it was dark out and her flight didn’t leave until late morning the next day. So she settled into one of the chairs offered at the airport and began to catch up with the world. 

Needless to say, she was surprised to find an email -a very recent one, sent only five days ago- in her inbox. It was written in English, one of the languages she had long ago learned and now came to her as easily as French had and sent from one Ms.Virginia ‘Pepper’ Potts, the CEO of Stark Industries. Marinette might not have been an active participant in the world at large for two years but by Kwami, she did not forget about Stark Industries and their amazing CEO. Marinette had very nearly squealed when she read the subject of the email and it was probably only two years of monk-like discipline and nine years of warding off monster creating parasites that fed on emotions that kept her from leaping to her feet and shouting of joy. She was being offered a position in SI under Ms.Pott’s direct supervision and in collaboration with the R&D department to help develop more practical, protective everyday and formal wear to mass-produce and sell to the public. It was a dream come true for the young Sorceress/designer. She was immensely glad that she had picked her destination to be New York City, after reading the email. 

She was quick to send her confirmation, keeping her email professional -like she had with Paris’ Mayor back when she still had to try and convince him to not do anything that would endanger her city- but enthusiastic and grateful. She was glad not to have to look for a job after everything had happened. She had graduated from university, sure but she hadn’t put her degrees to work anywhere. As soon as she could, she ran and hid in Kamar-Taj, desperate for an escape from the world. She could only hope that that decision didn’t cost her gravely now. By the time she was on the plane to New York, she was caught up on all the big and little things that had gone on all around the world and was almost glad she had become a recluse for some of it. The Avengers got into quite to row and then proceeded to split up, Wakanda opened its borders -Tikki had told her about the amazing Ladybug who had come from there, one Marinette had personally idolized for quite some time- and so many other little things that might have seemed unimportant to most but jarred her completely. 


End file.
